This invention relates to a resin-sealed type of semiconductor device that is manufactured by using a tape carrier technique called tape automated bonding (TAB) or tape carrier package (TCP), and a method of manufacturing such a semiconductor device.
One example of this type of semiconductor device is produced by the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 4-124846. With this technique, two different types of die-cut portions 1 and 3 as well as a single aperture portion 5 are formed in a film tape 2, as shown in FIG. 15. Four lead groups 4a to 4d, each comprising a large number of leads 4, and an integrated circuit chip 6 that is connected to these leads 4 are also formed in every one frame of film tape 2. A characteristic of this technique is the way in which the aperture portion 5 is formed between lead group 4a and lead group 4d, within a resin sealing region, so that molten resin can move through this aperture portion 5 during the resin sealing process.
The die-cut portions 1 are also formed within the resin sealing region in which lead groups 4a to 4d are arranged, separate from this aperture portion 5. The configuration is such that the molten resin can also move through these die-cut portions 1 during the resin sealing. Note that the die-cut portions indicated by reference number 3 in FIG. 15 are outer lead holes that act as aperture portions for punching the semiconductor device out after the resin sealing has been completed.
In accordance with this configuration, when the integrated circuit chip is being resin-sealed by a method such as transfer molding, the molten resin will mainly flow through the aperture portion 5 from the side that has the larger rate of flow to the side that has the smaller one, even if the rates of flow of resin into the resin injection chambers of the upper and lower dies are different, so the rates of flow of the resin in the upper and lower resin injection chambers can be kept balanced.
However, such a semiconductor device has a problem in that, since die-cut portions 1 are formed to extend along a wide range along the edges of the film, a tensile force F acting on the film tape during its transportation, for example, could easily cause the film tape to deform as shown by broken lines in FIG. 16. This deformation could cause leads 4 formed on the film tape to break.